It was pretty windy this morning. The sun was out and the sky was clear but the wind was blowin. The boat behind us had already moved to the lock wall for the Chambly Lock to head South. They had stopped by last night to chat after they saw we were from St. Clair. They had a SeaRay (40’ +/-) Sport Fisherman that had MC numbers covered mostly with tape and fresh Vermont numbers hanging from the bow rail. They had purchased the boat somewhere in the St Clair Flats and were bringing it back home to Lake Champlain. They took this route to avoid the bridges in the Erie Canal and he said the mileage was about the same. It was also interesting to note there was another SeaRay in the marina that was from St Clair Shores. What are the chances of 3 boats from Michigan in an out of the way Quebec marina on the same day.
We started up the Richelieu River and it is a pretty nice river with lots of homes along the way and some of them are really nice custom homes. There are many undeveloped areas but a lot of boats along the shore and we passed 2 cable ferries on the river. The car ferry uses the cable to pull itself across the river. I guess they do not need a real skilled captain for that service.
There were probably more clouds than sun as the morning went on. We called the marina in Sorel that we wanted to stay at to make a reservation. They said they did not have room for us. I looked over the chart book and we called another marina about 8 miles south of Sorel on the Richelieu River. I had to leave a message and we were never called back. We decided to stay on the lock wall at the Saint Ours Lock and go to Montreal tomorrow. Montreal is going to be a fairly long day because there is a strong current in the St. Lawrence River and we have about 42 miles against the current.
The Lock where we are staying has very nice grounds. They have put information kiosks all over the place to explain the history behind the lock. This lock was opened in the early 1800’s to connect the St Lawrence with the Hudson River and eventually New York. They had built a house for the Superintendent to stay in and quarters for the support crew. There were maintenance buildings and a horse barn for the horses that originally pulled the barges thru the canal. Many of the buildings did not survive until today but the history is pretty interesting.